Red Sky

April 10, 2017
Goff’s fine sequel to 2015’s Dark Waters takes U.S. Diplomatic Security Service agent Raisa Jordan to Ukraine to investigate a plane crash that killed a fellow agent, George McClasky. A DSS legend, McClasky was escorting fugitive Kia Zhen, a Chinese-American from San Francisco, back to the U.S. to face espionage charges. At the crash site in a farm field, she realizes there’s more to the tragedy and McClasky’s mission than she thought. And she’s right: the airliner was downed by a team of Russians using a land-based railgun, a secret weapon in development by the U.S. and other countries. The Russians intend to use the gun again in an attack that will help them take over Ukraine. It’s a convoluted plot, but the action is straightforward; readers will breeze past the political complications to race along with Jordan and her love interest, journalist Nye Davis, as they battle to prevent the Russian attack. Jordan’s indomitable spirit keeps her moving forward, especially when the bad guys, and even the good guys, tell her to back off. Agent: Peter Rubie, Fine Print Literary Management.

April 1, 2017
"Can't a girl have any fun?" Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent Raisa Jordan asks her companion as they dodge the bullets a Russian crew is firing at their wildly careening vehicle. And that's only the beginning of her fun.Veteran DSS agent George McClasky has been sent to Guangzhou to escort Kia Zhen, a fugitive suspected of gang membership and espionage, out of the country. When their flight crashes outside Hoholeve, Jordan (Dark Waters, 2015) is called out to take charge of the bodies and whatever sensitive information McClasky was carrying. Since that wouldn't suit the plans of Vasyl Kozachenko, whose men shot down the plane, he orders Jordan killed. She miraculously escapes, of course, but the corpses in her custody are charred almost beyond recognition. Almost, that is, until DNA testing indicates that neither corpse is Kia Zhen; someone else died in his place. How was McClasky fooled into bringing along someone other than the man responsible for selling priceless military technology to the Chinese, and when was the switch made? There's no time for Jordan to dwell on such niceties because she's busy trying to figure out why Reuters correspondent Nye Davis is following her, and whether she can trust him, and what he's like in bed, and whether he can pull his weight in her increasingly high-powered ops. This last question is answered when he suggests in the middle of one maneuver that a drone could deliver the explosive they need: "A block of C-4 would do the trick....It weighs about 1.25 lbs." Goff excels in setting the hook--if you blink, you'll miss the exposition--and plunging her heroine into one fast-moving action sequence after another. Readers seeking plausibility and great dialogue are advised to move along: nothing to see here.

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May 1, 2017
Diplomatic Security Service Agent Raisa Jordan returns in this follow-up to Dark Waters (2015). A diplomat she's scheduled to meet, along with the prisoner he was bringing from China, are in a plane crash in Ukraine. Jordan is allowed to inspect the wreckage, and, when she's forced to leave, she finds an envelope that appears to contain sensitive material. She hides it from the authorities, and soon finds herself a target. Why did the plane crash, and, more important, who is responsible? Most of the plot elements here are predictable, but Goff is still able to generate considerable suspense. Above all, Jordan makes a fine lead character. Give this to readers who like Matthew Palmer's blend of diplomacy and thrills.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)